Here Kitty-kitty!!

With kids being sick off and on all week, we haven't spent as much time outside as usual.  Our little kitten, Tuck, has been missing the attention from my kids.  He recently discovered the ledge outside our living room window... And it has become his new perch.

Lauren has also recently discovered the "freedom" of cruising along furniture and pulling herself up to standing.  She LOVES Tuck and is just beside herself trying to get to him whenever we are outside.  She is in 7th heaven with his new window perch!

So Thankful Thursday - Karen Edition

 As any Mom knows, there are ups and downs to parenting your little ones.  Sometimes the world is golden and the sky is the limit and sometimes you look at your little one with so much trepidation and wonder what the future holds.  This is true for any parent and I think especially true for parents of little ones with challenges.

I struggle daily with letting go of my worry for Karen and trusting God.  I struggle with focusing on the present and her beautiful, silly, joyful personality and letting go of wondering what challenges might hurt her in the future.  I struggle with not comparing her to other kids her age or even Megan and just seeing her for the child she is at this moment.  I struggle with not getting frustrated at not being able to understand her and remembering to feel blessed by the number of words she does use to communicate (and that I do understand) that she didn't have several months ago.

I struggle... that sentence could go on, and on, and on... the key that I've been trying to remind myself of is that it really is not about "I"... it is about her and the fact that she is exactly how God made her.

... exactly how God made her... really?!  Wow!! 

How blessed am I then that he entrusted this beautiful little girl to me and how much harder I need to make sure I work to remember that!  When looked at from that perspective, it is easy to see the blessings and graces that He has brought into our lives to ease this journey.  Just to name a few:

1. Karen's future kindergarten teacher (the one she will have next year!) chose to go to a conference on Apraxia this summer so she could understand Karen's condition and be better equipped to teach her!!
2. While at the conference, several of the speakers referenced Dr. Amy Meredith... Dr. Amy is the SLP that oversees Karen's twice a week sessions in Spokane!
3. Dr. Amy hand picked the student therapist that Karen is working with and so far Karen LOVES her... She is responding so well and working so hard!
4. Karen's SLP that she works with through the school chose to come to several of her sessions in Spokane so there would be continuity between what they are working on and what she does. 
5. This SLP has also established communication with Dr. Amy and is working on her own time to learn some of the resources that Dr. Amy recommends for Apraxia since she is not familiar with them. 
6. I've read enough blogs to know that the above 5 items are not typical experiences.

So that's what I'm thankful for on this beautiful Thursday.  What about you? 

O Lord, we give you thanks for having given us children. They are our joy, and we accept with serenity the worries, fears, and labors which bring us pain. Help us to love them sincerely. Through us you gave life to them; from eternity you knew them and loved them. Give us the wisdom to guide them, patience to teach them, vigilance to accustom them to the good through our example. Support our love so that we may receive them back when they have strayed and make them good. It is often so difficult to understand them, to be as they would want us to be, to help them go on their way. Grant that they may always see our home as a haven in their time of need. Teach us and help us, O good Father, through the merits of Jesus, your Son and our Lord. Amen.

Angel Wings {Wordless Wednesday}

Can you see them?

Back to school... stomach flu!

Yep!  We fell victim to the "back-to-school" stomach flu this last weekend.  I came down with it Thursday night.  Luckily it was a "once-and-done" for me.  I just feel crummy for a couple of days.

Megan woke up at 1:00am Friday night/Saturday morning with it.  The poor girl was pretty sick for about 36 hours. 

She finally started perking up yesterday afternoon.  Now the wait is on to see if Karen is the next victim and if Lauren will escape because of my anti-bodies!

I'm trying to get my week started off right - I need to get caught up on housework and laundry that didn't get done because of taking care of myself and Megan... but to be honest, I'm just reveling in a morning that doesn't include puking!! :)  Maybe this afternoon.

.. how's your week starting?

Fall Schedule - craziness!!

We are now three weeks into our fall schedule and all I can say is **WHEW!!!** I'm tired!

Karen started preschool three weeks ago.  The school part is not too bad - other than she is not a morning person, so having her up, dressed, and ready for school by 8 is a challenge.  I feel like a terrible Mom, but she has not eaten breakfast ONCE before school in the three weeks since it started.  Not for lack of offering it to her or time - she is just one of those kids that needs to be up for an hour (or more) before she is ready to eat.

This week - we added her speech therapy sessions in Spokane.  These are twice a week trips for 50 minute sessions.  With the drive time, it is a minimum of three hours.  When you add other appointments on top of that (I had a foot dr. appt in Spokane on Tuesday), today is our first day to just be home!

I've been trying really hard to change some habits.  It's been going pretty well but my challenge now is to keep up with it even with our added busy-ness.  Being out of the house for most of two days during the week (and this week was three) make it more of a struggle, but I have felt SOOOO much better with these changes in habit/focus on structure. 

So, in the interest of accountability, my focus the last few weeks has been:

1. Make my bed (so far I'm about 60% on this) 
2. At least one load of laundry a day (doing pretty good on this if you don't count that I haven't been getting it all put away)
3. Not leaving dishes in the sink between meals ... I tend to do this after breakfast because there only a few, but then if I don't take care of it at lunch I walk into the kitchen to make dinner and feel like it is a mess!! I'm so much more relaxed if I just do it!
4. Try and get the weekly house-cleaning items done prior to the weekend so our weekend can be focused on outside chores and projects, or inside house projects that we are finishing.
5. Put a timer on my computer/electronic time so I stop "losing" time!
6. Now that I've got the ok on my foot, I'll be adding in a daily fitness of some sort!